I did! I’m absolutely thrilled with it. Best decision I ever made. I LOATHED my contacts.

Hi Alex,

So did you actually have you LASIK treatment yet?
I’m just curious how did it go as I love reading your blog.

Kind regards,
David

Thanks Alyssa! It was a huge surprise!

I’m so glad LASIK was an option for you! Thats an awesome surprise! I couldn’t imagine staying out of the sun for 2+ months, either. I’m glad you’re recovering well!

Hey Alyssa! Guess what — I GOT TO HAVE LASIK! It was a crazy surprise, they literally told me a few hours before surgery. I was totally shocked (and had a little sticker shock too, ha) but I was relieved as my doctors had been grilling me about staying out of the sun for two months and I Was like, um, I live on a tropical island and I get around by motorbike. Zoink! So glad your surgery was a success, thank you for sharing your story!

The recovery did take longer — I took a week off of work. My sister covered up all the windows in my room because the light hurt my eyes and I will admit that a day after the surgery, I woke up in bed and my eyes felt like they were on fire. I slept a lot the first few days. I made sure not to rub my eyes to protect the protective lens. I think I went to the doctor 1-2 that week for a check up, and again 4 weeks later. My vision was immediately clear after the surgery — like I could see the time on the wall clock and the wrinkles in the doctor’s face seconds after the surgery — but my vision did blur for 1-2 weeks afterwards and didn’t totally stablize until the 4 week mark. But the actual recovery pain only lasted 3-4 days and if you sleep through most of it, it’s not that bad. I never suffered from any of the symptoms afterwards, like dry eyes.

My vision has been perfect the past 4 years and has allowed me to backpack for 10 months, scuba dive, run Tough Mudders, and more without worrying about contact lenses and solutions. I’m glad PRK was an option for me. You’ll be fine!! 🙂

Hey Dee! Sorry that’s confusing — the blog section is just optional for those who have one. It’s not required to post! I’ll talk to my designer to see if we can make that any clearer.

True, but maybe you can find a review job in Europe and travel Europe and combine it with the laser eye surgery.

By the way, I don’t have a blog (yet) but it seems I can’t post here without one. So I used the one I was talking about before.

Hey Dee, one thing to factor in is accommodation and travel cost. I’m already in Thailand which makes travel costs negligible, and accommodation is also incredibly inexpensive (an important factor for a surgery with a longer recover period, like PRK.) Of course if you’re already in Europe, Czech Republic might be a good choice. For me, being comfortable with the medical system in Thailand is a major factor in my decision to do my surgery there.

I am moving to Thailand and wanted to have a laser eye operation done there as I know that quality is excellent with low prices. While I was googling I decided to go for Relex Smile as you did initially.

Doing my research I came across your great blog but also following one:

https://www.lasik-eyes.co.uk/getting-laser-eye-surgery-abroad/

The list various countries with prices for LASIK per eye from GBP 1300 in U.K., GBP 1200 in Thailand down to GBP 315 in Czech Republic.

I found a company in Czech Republic which offers the Relex Smile procedure for about USD 1.350 / GBP 1.050 (KC 30.800) incl the fee for the initial examination.

The PRK must be much cheaper. See below link.

https://www.lexum.cz/en/services/laser-vision-correction

I haven’t researched their reviews yet and also not the pricing in South Korea. In Poland I found a few websites only in Polish yet!

However, I thought that might interest your readers that actually Europe seems to be much cheaper.